Self-compassion and suicide risk in veterans : when the going gets tough, do the tough benefit more from self-kindness?

Objectives: Veterans are at particular risk for suicide due to psychopathological, emotional, and interpersonal risk factors. However, the presence of individual-level protective factors, such as self-compassion, may reduce risk, becoming more salient at increasing levels of distress and psychopathology, per theory. We examined the relation between self-compassion and suicide risk, and the moderating effects of depression, PTSD symptoms, anger, shame, and thwarted interpersonal needs. Methods: Our sample of United States veterans (n=541) in our cross-sectional study were mostly male (69.1%) with an average age of 49.90 (SD=16.78), who completed online self-report measures: Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised, Multidimensional Health Profile-Psychosocial Functioning Screening Tool, PTSD Checklist-Military Version, Differential Emotions Scale-IV, and the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire. Results: The linkage between self-compassion and suicidal behavior in our veteran sample was moderated by distress-evoking risk factors, including depression, anger, shame, and thwarted interpersonal needs, such that, as level of risk severity increases, the inverse association between self-compassion and suicidal behavior is strengthened. Conclusions: Our findings highlight an emergent protective process that may prevent suicide in times of distress. Therapeutically bolstering the ability for self-compassion may provide a proactive coping strategy that can be brought to bear in times of crisis, reducing suicide risk for veterans

Potential Benefits of Cattle Vaccination as a Supplementary Control for Bovine Tuberculosis

This is the final published version of the article. It was originally published in PLOS Computational Biology (Conlan AJK, Brooks Pollock E, McKinley TJ, Mitchell AP, Jones GJ, Vordermeier M, Wood JLN, PLoS Computational Biology 2015, 11(2): e1004038. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004038).\ud \ud ? 2015 Crown Copyright. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the free Open Government Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o?pen-government-licence/open-government-l?icence.htmVaccination for the control of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle is not currently used within any international control program, and is illegal within the EU. Candidate vaccines, based upon Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Gu?rin (BCG) all interfere with the action of the tuberculin skin test, which is used to determine if animals, herds and countries are officially bTB-free. New diagnostic tests that Differentiate Infected from Vaccinated Animals (DIVA) offer the potential to introduce vaccination within existing eradication programs. We use within-herd transmission models estimated from historical data from Great Britain (GB) to explore the feasibility of such supplemental use of vaccination. The economic impact of bovine Tuberculosis for farmers is dominated by the costs associated with testing, and associated restrictions on animal movements. Farmers? willingness to adopt vaccination will require vaccination to not only reduce the burden of infection, but also the risk of restrictions being imposed. We find that, under the intensive sequence of testing in GB, it is the specificity of the DIVA test, rather than the sensitivity, that is the greatest barrier to see a herd level benefit of vaccination. The potential negative effects of vaccination could be mitigated through relaxation of testing. However, this could potentially increase the hidden burden of infection within Officially TB Free herds. Using our models, we explore the range of the DIVA test characteristics necessary to see a protective herd level benefit of vaccination. We estimate that a DIVA specificity of at least 99.85% and sensitivity of >40% is required to see a protective benefit of vaccination with no increase in the risk of missed infection. Data from experimentally infected animals suggest that this target specificity could be achieved in vaccinates using a cocktail of three DIVA antigens while maintaining a sensitivity of 73.3% (95%CI: 61.9, 82.9%) relative to post-mortem detection.This study was funded by Defra project SE3127 and uses nationally collected incidence and cattle-movement data sets held by Defra. The funders had no role in study design, data analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Attitudes to a male contraceptive pill in a group of contraceptive users in the UK

BACKGROUND. Small scale trials of male hormonal contraception have produced encouraging results. Attitudes to and beliefs about a proposed male pill may affect uptake. METHODS. This paper examines attitudes towards a proposed ‘male contraceptive pill’ among a self selected sample of 54 men and 134 women, living in a non-metropolitan centre in the East of England, United Kingdom who were already users of contraception. Thirty four respondents were also interviewed and their views on the male pill were qualitatively analysed. RESULTS. The acceptability of a male pill was high with just under half (49.5%) of respondents indicating that they would use it. Gender, length of relationship, age and educational achievement did not affect the reported acceptability. 42% of respondents expressed concerns that men would forget to take a male pill. Women were significantly more likely to express this concern than men. 26% of respondents expressed health concerns. Willingness to take a male pill was associated with expressing the view that increased protection against pregnancy would be an advantage of such a method. Those unwilling or undecided were more likely to express concerns about the effect of a pill on future fertility. CONCLUSIONS. A male pill was accepted as a potential aid to increased fertility control by a large proportion of a convenience sample of contraceptive users in the East of England. If a male pill were to be marketed in the UK this study suggests that concerns about effects on future fertility and health risks may need to be addressed

Fibromyalgia impact and depressive symptoms: Can perceiving a silver lining make a difference?

Individuals with fibromyalgia are at greater risk for depressive symptoms than the general population, and this may be partially attributable to physical symptoms that impair day‐to‐day functioning. However, individual‐level protective characteristics may buffer risk for psychopathology. For instance, the ability to perceive a “silver lining” in one’s illness may be related to better mental and physical health. We examined perceived silver lining as a potential moderator of the relation between fibromyalgia impact and depressive symptoms. Our sample of persons with fibromyalgia (N = 401) completed self‐report measures including the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire‐Revised, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, and the Silver Lining Questionnaire. Moderation analyses covaried age, sex, and ethnicity. Supporting hypotheses, increasing impact of disease was related to greater depressive symptoms, and perceptions of a silver lining attenuated that association. Despite the linkage between impairment and depressive symptoms, identifying positive aspects or outcomes of illness may reduce risk for psychopathology. Therapeutically promoting perception of a silver lining, perhaps via signature strengths exercises or a blessings journal, and encouraging cognitive reframing of the illness experience, perhaps via Motivational Interviewing or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, may reduce depressive symptoms in persons with fibromyalgia

Using Red List Indices to monitor extinction risk at national scales

The Red List Index (RLI) measures change in the aggregate extinction risk of species. It is a key indicator for tracking progress toward nine of the Aichi and many proposed post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework Targets. Here, we consider two formulations of the RLI used for reporting biodiversity trends at national scales. Disaggregated global RLIs measure changing national contributions to global extinction risk and are currently based on five taxonomic groups, while national RLIs measure changing national extinction risk and are based on taxonomic groups assessed multiple times in country. For 74% of nations, the disaggregated global RLI is currently based on three or fewer taxonomic groups. Meanwhile, national RLIs from selected pilot countries Finland, South Africa, and Brazil are computed from twelve, eight, and nine taxonomic groups, respectively. The national RLI and the disaggregated global RLI measure different aspects of biodiversity, in that the former detects national trends in populations of species for which each country is responsible while the latter provides standardized comparisons of nations' contributions to the global extinction risk of the same species groups. As governments commit to the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, we encourage them to monitor a standard set of taxonomic groups representing different biomes using both RLI formulations to ensure effective target tracking and accurate feedback on their conservation investments.Peer reviewe

Lepton flavour violating Higgs Boson decays, tau --> mu gamma and B(s) --> mu+mu- in the constrained MSSM+NR with large tan beta

Realistic predictions are made for the rates of lepton flavour violating Higgs boson decays, tau --> mu gamma, mu --> e gamma, Bs --> mu+mu-, Bs --> tau mu and tau --> 3mu, via a top-down analysis of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model(MSSM) constrained by SU(5) unification with right-handed Neutrinos and large tan beta. The third family neutrino Yukawa coupling is chosen to be of order 1, in this way our model bares a significant resemblance to supersymmetric SO(10). In this framework the large PMNS mixings result in potentially large lepton flavour violation. Our analysis predicts tau --> mu gamma and mu --> e gamma rates in the region (10^{-8}-10^{-6}) and (10^{-15}-10^{-14}) respectively. We also show that the rates for lepton flavour violating Higgs decays can be as large as 10^{-7}. The non-decoupling nature of H --> tau mu is observed which leads to its decay rate becoming comparable to that for tau --> mu gamma for large values of m_0 and M_1/2. We also find that the present bound on Bs --> mu+mu- is an important constraint on the rate of lepton flavour violating Higgs decays. The recently measured Bs-Bsbar mixing parameter Delta Ms is also investigated.Comment: 27 pages, 15 postscript figures, 1 table. Small changes made to the text and title. Updated references. Bs-Bsbar analysis also include

A paradigm in immunochemistry, revealed by monoclonal antibodies to spatially distinct epitopes on Syntenin-1

Syntenin-1 is an essential multi-functional adaptor protein, which has multiple roles in membrane trafficking and exosome biogenesis, as well as scaffolding interactions with either the actin cytoskeleton or focal adhesions. However, how this functional multiplicity relates to syntenin-1 distribution in different endosome compartments or other intracellular locations and its underlying involvement in cancer pathogenesis have yet to be fully defined. To help facilitate the investigation of syntenin-1 biology, we developed two specific monoclonal antibodies (Synt-2C6 and Synt-3A11) to spatially distinct linear sequence epitopes on syntenin-1, which were each designed to be unique at the six-amino acid level. These antibodies produced very different intracellular staining patterns, with Synt-2C6 detecting endosomes and Synt-3A11 producing a fibrillar staining pattern suggesting a cytoskeletal localisation. Treatment of cells with Nocodazole altered the intracellular localisation of Synt-3A11, which was consistent with the syntenin-1 protein interacting with microtubules. In prostate tissue biopsies, Synt-3A11 defined atrophy and early-stage prostate cancer, whereas Synt-2C6 only showed minimal interaction with atrophic tissue. This highlights a critical need for site-specific antibodies and a knowledge of their reactivity to define differential protein distributions, interactions and functions, which may differ between normal and malignant cells.Ian R. D. Johnson, Alexandra Sorvina, Jessica M. Logan, Courtney R. Moore, Jessica K. Heatlie, Emma J. Parkinson-Lawrence, Stavros Selemidis, John J. O’Leary, Lisa M. Butler and Douglas A. Brook